User:Vermontbookworm/sandbox



Richard Engelmann (born December 5, 1868 in Bayreuth, † September 11, 1966 in Kirchzarten ) was a German sculptor.

Life
After completing his studies and subsequent study visits, he was appointed professor at the University of Fine Arts in Weimar as head of the sculpture department in 1913 with the support of the Worpswede artist Fritz Mackensen. His pupils included the later Bauhaus designer Marianne Brandt. His summer house, built in Wartenberg in 1913 according to a plan by Henry van de Velde, is a listed building.

In 1930 he was removed from his office by the völkisch architect and academy director Paul Schultze-Naumburg. In 1935 Engelmann was banned from working by the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts because of his Jewish background. The Reich Chamber explained its decision thus:

" ... because you are not Aryan and as such do not have the reliability and suitability required for the creation of German cultural assets. "

He spent the following years of National Socialism from 1936 in the seclusion of Kirchzarten in Baden near Freiburg. Because of his mixed marriage (a Nazi concept used to describe the marriage of Jews and Aryans), he was not deported to the French Camp de Gurs as part of the Wagner-Bürckel campaign.

His supporters at the time included Walter Eucken, Heinrich Brenzinger and Wolfgang Hoffmann, an opponent of the National Socialists and later Lord Mayor. In this office Hoffmann also had a part to play for Engelmann after World War II, when, as part of his rehabilitation he  received various orders of Freiburg. A discussion arose about the design of the Marienbrunnen, in the course of which Engelmann was again denied the suitability of creating a work:

"... as standing outside the Catholic Church, not suitable for performing such a figure."

He died on September 11, 1966 at the age of 97 and is buried with his wife Frieda Engelmann (1890–1973) at the Freiburg Günterstal cemetery. His estate, which the Freiburg museums had rejected, has been administered by the Bauhaus University Weimar since 1997. Part of it has been in the possession of the Baden-Württemberg State Archives since 1995. A part of it has been in the possession of the Baden-Württemberg State Archives since 1995. [6]

On February 3, 2019, an episode of the NDR's Lieb & Teuer program was broadcast, moderated by Janin Ullmann and filmed in Reinbek Castle. Three Engelmann sculptures were discussed with the art historian Stephan Schwarzl.

Works
Engelmann's early works include war memorials for the fallen of  World War I in Apolda, which contained a bronze Pietà and one in Vacha from 1929. The monument in Apolda was dismantled and scrapped by the National Socialist city councils overnight in 1941. The sculpture remaining in Vacha depicts the impressive bronze figure of a dying youth, a very rare motif for the time.

Around 1914 he created a fountain monument for the poet Ernst von Wildenbruch on behalf of an association in Weimar. It was removed in 1976 because of the inscription “I don't fight to attack, but to defend." Since then the fountain has be relocated near the princely crypt.

He created his relief of Christ Carrying the Cross at the grave site of the Wieman-Grothaus family in the Johannisfriedhof in Osnabrück and a putto for it in 1919. The writer Bernard Wieman and the actor Mathias Wieman, among others, were buried in this cemetery.

Most of his works can be found in Freiburg im Breisgau. Some of them were made before the world wars, including Crouching Girl (around 1913/14), a copy of which is in the courtyard of the Old University, while the original is in the garden of the Villa Schulenburg in Gera, built by Henry van de Velde. Flora and Girl with Sponge were created in 1906, have only been at the Freiburg Heinrich Rosenberg Square since 1946.

A year later, Hoffmann discovered a small statue of the Madonna in Engelmann's studio, which made a great impression on him. He campaigned in the local council to put up a large copy of it on the square in front of the Stühlinger Herz-Jesu-Kirche. Despite heated discussions, the fountain was opened on October 17, 1954 in the presence of the artist.

In addition to two busts ( An die Kunst and Max Reger ) in the foyer of the Freiburg theater, which Hoffmann had restored very quickly after the war, Engelmann's works can be found in some Freiburg cemeteries: The Mourner memorializes the victims of the air raids in the main cemetery since 1951 Freiburg. There is a memorial for Alexander Gumprecht at the St. Georgen cemetery and a tomb for Engelmann's grandson Matthias Pieske at the Kappel cemetery, which contains a small version of The Mourners. In 1953 Engelmann created the bust that depicts the unframed grave of him and his wife in the cemetery Günterstal adorns.

Other Freiburg works are the Waiting from 1926, which has been in the Stadtgarten since 1950, and The Old Scholar at the regional council.

His works in other cities include the sculpture Girls at the Berliner Kunststeinwerke in Berlin-Tempelhof as well as in Görlitz the fountain sculpture Reclining with Harp of the art fountain in the city hall garden and the sculpture Despair in the city park.

From 1913 to 1930 Engelmann created a number of portrait busts, including by Admiral Reinhard Scheer, Felix Graf Luckner , the painter Arnold Böcklin , Ernst Haeckel and his friend Walter Eucken.

Honors

 * 1955: Cross of Merit (Steckkreuz) of the Federal Republic of Germany

Literature

 * Eckart Pieske: Der tötende Alltag. Dargestellt am Schicksal des Bildhauers Richard Engelmann und seiner Familie. In: Lehren und Lernen. 6 (1980) H. 12, S. 20–50.
 * Karsten Weber: Ein Franke in Thüringen und Baden. In: Badische Heimat. 68. Jahrgang, 1988, S. 611–615.
 * Gitta Günther, Wolfram Huschke, Walter Steiner (Hrsg.): Weimar. Lexikon zur Stadtgeschichte. Weimar 1998, ISBN 3-7400-0807-5, S. #.
 * Michael Klant: Richard Engelmann. Die Würde des Menschen. In: Michael Klant (Hrsg.): Skulptur in Freiburg. Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts im öffentlichen Raum. Freiburg 1998, ISBN 3-922675-76-X, S. 56–59.
 * Silke Opitz: Die beiden „kauernden Mädchen“ des Bildhauers Richard Engelmann. Zum Original im Garten der von Henry van de Velde erbauten Villa Schulenburg in Gera und dessen Freiburger Replik. In: Badische Heimat. 76. Jahrgang, 1996, S. 565–571
 * Silke Opitz: Ein Gentlemankünstler. Leben und Werk des Bildhauers Richard Engelmann. Weimar 2000 (zugleich Diss. Bauhaus-Universität 2000) ISBN 3-89739-141-4
 * Peter Franz: Der gewöhnliche Faschismus. Über die alltägliche Herrschaft der „Nationalsozialisten“ in einer deutschen Mittelstadt (Apolda). Reihe: gesucht 4 Die Vergangenheit für die Zukunft retten!, Weimar 2001, ISBN 3-935275-00-5, S. #.
 * Ute Scherb: „Wir bekommen die Denkmäler, die wir verdienen“. Freiburger Monumente im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Freiburg 2005, ISBN 3-923272-31-6, S. 201–205.